DLA018-0006  Transcription

6th August, 1932.

My dear venerated Miss Quinsel!

I wish to apologise first for my delayed reply to your letter of July 6th.[1] It gave me great pleasure to receive it, but since I have been back from America I have been exceptionally busy, and unable to attend properly to my correspondence.

Yes, I did get your previous letter in which you described your wonderful success which you had through my friends the Willingdons.[2] It seems to me you are a wonderful lady to undertake all these journeys which you described, and I admire you very much for it.

I also received the article from the Neue Freie Presse, which was very well written.

And now you go to Coburg, where you will find many friends of mine at the wedding.[3] One of my oldest friends is King Ferdinand of Bulgaria.[4] It was my first court, when I was twenty-five, when I stayed with him in Sophia and on the Black Sea in his marvelous castle at Euxinograde, when his first wife was still alive, and his glorious mother, the Duchess Clementine of Coburg.[5] At that time I also painted the present King of Bulgaria, when he was a boy about a year old [3712 and 3934].[6] Just a year ago, when I was in Baden-Baden, I had a good chat with the Ex-King Ferdinand. Please remember me to all of them when you see them.

I hope you will come over here after the wedding. October will suit me to see you, but will you write to me a fortnight before, in case something may crop up, as I want to be here, and we can then arrange exact dates.

[Page 2]

I have just finished two interesting portraits. One is of Lord Cecil [4053], and will be presented to him in October by the League of Nations Union. We may probably be able to arrange for you to be present at the presentation which will take place in the Guildhall here The other portrait I have just finished is of the Archbishop of Canterbury [6161], who has been most interesting to paint.

What pleases me most is that now I can begin my studies for the large picture of which you know.[7] The little chapel for it is ready, but before I begin I must go down to the country and take a thorough rest, and then I will go on with it in the first days of September.

Please write to me here and your letter will be forwarded.

Hoping to hear from you soon, and with my renewed apologies for my delay in writing and all our best wishes,

Believe me, | Always yours most sincerely,

Miss Annie Quinsel,

Kommandörsgatan 35,

Stockholm.

Editorial Note:

Doctor Annie Theresia Quensel [née Weiss] (1886-1933), Austrian-Swedish journalist, author (and zoologist); for biographical notes, see [111430].

SMDL

06/04/2018

[1] DLA018-0002, letter from Annie Quensel to de László, 6 July 1932

[2] Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess of Willingdon (1866-1941), Governor-General of Canada and Viceroy of India; and Marie Freeman-Thomas, Marchioness of Willingdon, née Lady Marie Adelaide Brassey (1875-1960) [7755]

[3] A reference to the wedding of Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden, Duke of Västerbotten (1906-1947) and Sibylla Calma Marie Alice Bathildis Feodora of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1908-1972), which took place on 19/20th October, 1932.

[4] King Ferdinand I of Bulgaria (1861-1948) [3937]

[5] Queen of Bulgaria, née Princess Maria Luisa of Bourbon-Parma; consort of King Ferdinand I (1870-1899) [3715]; Princess Clémentine of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, née Marie Clémentine Léopoldine Caroline Clotilde d'Orléans; wife of Prince August Victor Louis of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1817-1907)

[6]  From the end of September to the end of December 1894, de László was in Bulgaria, first at the Winter Palace at Euxinograd, and afterwards at the Royal Palace at Sofia, to paint portraits of Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria [3937] and his wife, Princess Marie-Louise [3715]. Whilst completing the original commissions, the artist was asked to paint a portrait of the heir apparent, Prince Boris [3712], then ten months old, as a present from Prince Ferdinand to his mother, Princess Clémentine, most probably to mark the occasion of Boris’s first birthday. De László painted a second portrait of Prince Boris [3934], which was probably a first version.

[7] De László had planned to paint a picture for his own pleasure on a subject in connection with the First World War. He wished to depict: “not men fighting, but the still nobler part of suffering women at home; women of all classes in a chapel surrounding the burning candles for the fallen souls” (Rutter, pp. 372-373). The painting was never started although many studies and sketches remained in his studio on his death.